Murder on the Majestic Otter

For in-universe game play. Journey through both familiar and foreign settings, explore lost ruins and forgotten cities, and try to bring light to the darkness of the world... or, you know, blow stuff up. Either way.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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"Is there anybody else that could have come up with the extra hand that was in that other guy's room? Oh, wait, you don't know about that."

Jade shuddered at the new information. Violence was a subject the blacksmith was on familiar terms with; but a woman had her limits.

"Your master could trans... erm.. transmag... riffy..."

"Transmogrify." Supplied Khoo.

"Yeah, that...thing...to people. Leo told me you'd been... mogrified when he first met you?"

"That's not a real word, Jade."

"Whatever. Could he shift dead organic material into something else? I keep thinking about that patchwork corpse that got this ball rolling as well. Would he have the skill set to piece together a body from different sources? Would he have any reason to do that? What about himself? Has he got any reason to modify his own body?"

She caught herself and gave the familiar an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about the barrage of questions. I get manic sometimes with creative things. Leo tells me it's just as well I can't do magic because Gods know what kind of mischief I'd get up to." She shrugged. "Chances are I'd probably be the one responsible for the mix and match corpse if that was true."

OOC God, can you imagine Jade as a tech nut villain? :twisted: /OOC
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Graybeard
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: Yeah, that would be scary! So a brief response:]

Khoo shook his head. "You'd have to be a real specialist to do that. Not just a lifemage -- I know what you're thinking -- but one with unusual skills. (And an incredibly strong stomach.)"

"Yeah, that's beyond him. In case you were thinking it," Edgar chimed in, "the missus wouldn't have those skills either. She's what the Farrelites would call a 'general practitioner' -- can do lots of healing, but nothing specialized like would be needed for that."

Khoo nodded; this came as something of a relief, actually. "So most likely it was a real, extra hand. But who would have access to body parts on board? And why would they do something as crazy, as gross, as that?"

The question did seem to need discussing ...
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: A twofer at the infirmary, to deal with something I missed with the previous one:]

Tori was getting the color back in her very attractive face, and after a brief Hygiene spell (Khoo following her good example, and noting in the process that her ears were just very slightly pointed), she sighed. "Well, we'd better get this place cleaned up before Mr. Stuffed Shirt gets here."

Dissent came first from an unexpected source. "No, we shouldn't," Kevin said. "It's a crime scene. We'd be tampering with evidence, which automatically turns us into suspects." Three faces turned to look at him, and he added, "I ... do have a little experience with crime scenes. Cleaning them up, I mean."

"Cleaning them up" ... right, thought Khoo, who was getting his doubts about the muscular man anyway. Well, now wasn't the time to pursue those doubts. "You think it'd be okay if I stabilized the scene instead, with some magic?" he asked. "We really don't want blood getting tracked from the crime scene all over the place, and besides, the seagulls are going to find it before long."

At this observation, Edgar produced a very human-like "Hmmm." Then: "That's funny: why haven't they found it already? A gull can smell a pool of blood this size a mile away."

Khoo bent to cast a Ward that would both preserve the site from both intruders and natural decay, but he suddenly pulled up. "That's weird," he said. "This place already has a Ward on it, put on by somebody else."

"The person who left that bootprint?" Tori ventured.

Khoo looked again, was surprised at what he saw. "No, the print is under the Ward. It got preserved too."

Kevin emitted a low rumble at odds with his usual, surprisingly soft voice. "Sounds to me like someone is trying to frame this Lifemage Saraya whose boot that fits."

And Edgar's turn: "Which means she's still alive ... somewhere."

[EDIT: a belated repair of a typo so that something that didn't make sense now does.]
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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"WALDO??"

"You know him?" Asked Eve, not failing to notice the crimson shade her companion had turned. "Old boyfriend by any chance?"

OOC Short I know. But I've been a lazy sod lately and need to get moving again./OOC
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC:
"Old boyfriend by any chance?"
I thought you'd never ask. :twisted: Also short, but some things don't require a lot of elaboration... :twisted: ]

Anna-Lisa's flush deepened. "No! Well, not really ... Not like ..." Redder yet. "He was a student at Sashi Mu, a little older than I was, maybe between my age and TLK's." It took a second for the others to figure out that "TLK" was her current term of endearment for Khoo, but it came quickly.

"We -- met at a party. I had kind of a lot to drink, see, it had been my first introduction to pure 200-proof alcohol from the thaumatic-chemistry lab ..." She visibly shook herself, which was something she didn't do very often. "He -- it was creepy."

She didn't mention that it also became the occasion for her to quietly seek out a classmate who could cast a "morning after" Contraception spell. Then again, given the current color of her face, she probably didn't need to.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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Eve, mercifully, decided against further prying into Anne-Lisa's private affairs. The fact was the usually abrasive tomboy had taken a liking to the young mage. She'd certainly proven herself a trustworthy confidant on matters of the heart.

"Well this waldo is the helmsman's mate, correct?" Leo asked, Moriarty nodded. "And it seems he may have been caught up in shenanigans regarding my brother's memory. So how about we find said helmsman and see if he can point us in yon acquaintances direction?"

"Something tells me waldo is going to be difficult to find." The Captain muttered.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: OK, let's try this again ...
"Something tells me waldo is going to be difficult to find." The Captain muttered.
Bad, bad. :lol: ]

"Can we start by talking to this Ensign Nagato?" Elke asked. "Maybe he'd have ideas on where his underling is."

As though on cue, the ship's horn sounded; the one-hour blast, easily heard despite the Damping and signifying that everybody needed to be back on board or to get that way quickly, with departure one hour away. Moriarty shook his head. "Not until we're underway. Damn ship practically sails itself, but rules are rules and the bridge has to be secure until we're in open water. Speaking of which, excuse me, I'm going to be busy for the next two hours." He pivoted and walked back through the shimmering magic to the hatch to the bridge.

Elke pulled a sour face. "Any ideas? Anna-Lisa, can you at least tell us what this Waldo looks like?"

This broke her out of her blush for the moment. "Well, he's not notable, just looks like the average Farrelite," she said. "Farrelian skin color, brown eyes, kind of a heart-shaped face, average height, average build. Big with his pants off, but --"

The blush was back. Annabelle executed a nice save. "Meaning he's long-legged for his height, right?"

For once in her life, Anna-Lisa didn't trust herself to say anything more, but just nodded mutely as the ship's horn sounded again.

[OOC: The action can get going, but one thing that it would be helpful to know before a certain verbal McGuffin is thrown in: Do you remember whether any of the Silver Hands ever met Sister Rose? I can't recall them meeting other than maybe as Amalric's airship was refueling in Rinkaiel on the way to deliver its explosive "cargo," but I haven't been able to confirm that one. It would be helpful to know, to try to get some of the next part right. (And no, Rose isn't joining the party. She's "retired" ...]
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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OOC Yeah they met her. I think Leo and Eve did anyway. /OOC

Leo watched his brother depart with unease written on his face. He didn't like the way this investigation was going at all.

"Well, that leaves us searching with Anne-Lisa for yon long legged man unless..." Eve paused as an idea struck her. "Is there any way to make an accurate picture of him? If we split up with an image we could probably find our culprit much faster."

"Split up." Leo deadpanned.

"Yes? And?"

"On a ship where there has been multiple murders."

"Unless we're switching vessels. Yes."

"And weird magic and kidnappings."

"These are all thing that have happened. Yes."

"Have you been on the sauce again?"

"What's wrong fop? Got no confidence in your ability?" Eve smirked at her companion.
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on May 28th, 2021, 8:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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"Is there any way to make an accurate picture of him?"

Anna-Lisa started looking uncomfortable as soon as this question was asked. She waited until the Silver Hands by-play was done, and then cleared her throat. "Well .. there might be a problem with a picture."

"And that is?" someone prompted.

She looked more uncomfortable. "See, I took a class on 'Introduction to Polymorphing' with him. And it turned out he was really, really good at it.
It just came naturally to him. Professor Imai said that Waldo was probably better at it than he himself was, that maybe he had the potential to be one of the best in the world, not the best, that's some nun in Veracia of all places according to a prof there that Professor Imai knows, but..."

This assessment wasn't entirely accurate; there was, or at least had been, a priest who was even better, as Sister Rose herself would freely acknowledge. Still, the point was clear enough. "So what you're saying," Elke said into the silence after Anna-Lisa's voice trailed off, "is that we're looking for a guy who may be a serial murderer; could be masquerading as most anyone on board(*); has gone missing, for Luminosita alone knows what reason; and has motives that we don't have a clue of. Is that right?"

"Afraid so," Anna-Lisa said miserably.(*)

"Well, shit," several voices said at once into the silence that followed this summation.

(*) [OOC: This summary isn't accurate either -- maybe. Rose herself has explained that her own shapeshifting has limits: she can only take the form of a humanoid woman, and can't exactly duplicate anyone else's appearance. What makes her (and the late Father Egbert, but he was a special case for the sake of the BBEG) unique is that it just "comes easily" to her, without the fatigue that almost any other mage has when Polymorphing according to Impy. Is Waldo also thus limited? Who knows? My reason for inquiring about Rose interacting with the Silver Hands is to establish whether they'd know about that limitation. I don't think they would, but it's your call.]
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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"I could ask Morty for a full of the crew and passengers and crew." Leo chipped in. "See if anything suspicious crops up."

"Is there any kind of spell or device that can measure magic ability in people?" Eve queried. "If we can bug the Captain into getting everyone to line up and isolate the mojo weavers we could narrow down who Waldo might be." She shrugged. "Who knows? On the off chance there's a workshop on board the ship, and Jade has the right info and the right materials she might be able to make something to help."

"Sounds like a reach to me." Leo sighed.

"I said might." A look of frustration passed over the young woman's face and then, grudgingly she continued. "The biggest problem with our organisation is that the Silver Hands are universally as magic as a pile of bricks. Sneaking around, breaking into places, putting the charms on people are all well and good but if we're dealing with a shapeshifter and no way of detecting him we're operating at a huge disadvantage."

"If we knew what this psycho's motivation was we could set up a trap." Leo suggested. "I'm just spit balling here."
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on May 28th, 2021, 8:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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